Having spent all of my professional life in Jewish Communal Service, I have had vast opportunities to participate in a wide variety of religious, observant, cultural and honestly convenient celebrations of Judaism. Through my almost 30 years of JCC employment, I have been told, lectured to, suggest by, informed of and experienced what God is, what God isn’t, what a good Jew should be, what bad Jews act like, who is a Jew and of course who is really not Jewish. The thing I understand best at my ripe young age of 67, is that my kind of Judaism, my beliefs, my connection with my God is unique unto me, but because of all the hundreds of people I have met, it incorporates so much more.
Tonight is the beginning of Pesach (Passover). For me, the reason to celebrate this holiday has much to do with the issues of freedom, the need to express myself, and the choices of how to make a difference and how to let the opportunity of equality slip by, with just the sheer lack of action. Perhaps, the Jews of Egypt fled for 40 years, understanding that the risks taken for freedom outweighed the oppression of slavery…perhaps a higher power provided the escape necessary…of course being human, many could not understand that deep inside they had the will to become more, and perhaps they needed God to remind them of their own abilities, albeit, for me, it is easier to ask God to do the job than often times doing it yourself. Tonight is a look back at history, and sadly, a story I see finding surface in out modern society. Not just the Jews, but many Americans are becoming the victims of a self anointed Pharaoh, shackles created formless income, less education, less health care, less job opportunities have been dangling and the more complacent the citizen the tighter these chain become. Tonight, is Pesach, and at the Seder people will sing Dayenu (Hebrew for “It would have been enough”) reminding us that we once were slaves, not again, EVER. For me, I must add never again, and will continue my Exodus from a tyrant, an oppressive government and the politicians who enjoy the kind of life, the rest of us must beg for.
Tonight is Pesach, and the one other wonder of this holiday aside from never taking freedom for granted, is the culinary aromas and tastes, which still permeate, my soul as if my mother was still cooking, baking in her kitchen. I always miss my mother, but on Jewish holidays filled with flavors, I remember how her food tasted so much better as she added love to everything she created. Hag Sameach!
